Britain’s Demand For Television Sets Remains Well Ahead Of Supply

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 4, 5 December 1947, Page 7

Britain’s Demand For Television Sets Remains Well Ahead Of Supply

Britain has enjoyed a regular daily television programme service since 1937, interrupted only during the war years. Before war broke out in 1939, the service had definitely established itself in the public esteem, and since the resumption of programmes the demand for receiv, 7 ing sets has continued at a high level, as yet considerably in excess of the rate of supply. The number of viewers is variously estimated at between 18 and 25 thousand, the great majority of these being situated in the densely populated region surrounding the broadcasting station at Alexandra Palace. The officially recognised service area is 30 miles radius from the transmitter, although first-rate results are, with present day receivers, obtainable up to 50 miles; and pictures varying in quality between poor and excellent according to atmospheric conditions have been, and are still being received in such places as Torquay, Leicester, Birmingham and Blankenberghe, Belgium. In the compass of these' few lines - it is not easy to launch out on a broad survey of the art; an art which is in its infancy and around which, at all levels from the experienced engineer to the layman whose aunt saw a television programme last week controversy rages continually. About many aspects of the problem there are* two or three schools of thought; but about many others, expert opinion is in agreement, and popular fallacies abound. Entertainment Value

The most important thing to realise in evaluating the merits of television as an entertainment medium is that it has nothing whatever in common with the commercial film. One is not talking now of bigscreeh theatre television, which has made rapid technical strides recently and which may be found to have great commercial value in the promotion or distribution of films as they are. One refers to the domestic receiver in the family livingroom. If it can be compared at all to any existing thing, it would be to the “home movie” apparatus where family and friends enjoy informal and unsophisticated entertainment of a type unknown in the large picture theatre. This comparison does not mean that television programmes are, or should be, amateurish or naive; it is simply im- 1 portant to realise that the audience is small, and their attitude intimate and informal. The most successful programmes are those which lay emphasis on friendliness and charm; the monumental and remote sit uneasily on the television screen.